Reviews by Ken Burke
Take care, curious readers, for plot spoilers gallop rampantly throughout the Two Guys’ insightful reviews. Therefore, be warned, beware, and read on when you’re ready to be transported to … wherever we end up. Please protect your eyes from the dazzling brilliance.
In this very different take on the well-respected-character of Sherlock Holmes (Ian McKellen)—based on a 2005 novel by Mitch Cullin, A Slight Trick of the Mind—we find our master detective in 1947, semi-content in self-imposed-isolation near the fabled White Cliffs of Dover, living the life of an irascible country gentleman, raising bees while sharing his often-cranky-demeanor with his housekeeper, Mrs. Munro (Laura Linney), and her young son, Roger (Milo Parker). As we get to know this 93-year-old-version of Holmes better, we find that he left his detective practice 30 years ago because of an unsolved case (within the Holmes fictions of actual-author-Arthur Conan Doyle the mysteries are usually presented as if written by Holmes’ friend and investigative partner, Dr. Watson; in this film the troublesome case is called Sherlock Holmes and the Lady in Grey, which irritates Sherlock because Watson presents it—and the movie, that we see briefly within this film, adapted from it [with Nicholas Rowe as Sherlock]—as solved whereas our protagonist insists it wasn’t, thereby leading him to abandon his practice), but in truth as his age increases and his memory often fails he struggles for most of this story to remember exactly what did happen, although he’s still quite clear that he’s annoyed with Watson’s usual romantic embellishments—including the “characteristic” deerstalker hat and pipe—so that he’d like to write this story himself as he painstakingly recalls fragments of its specifics from that long-ago-barely-post-WW I-era. As details begin to return to him (even though his memory’s not really helped by the jelly made from the Japanese prickly ash plant, the result of a journey he made to nuclear-devastated-Hiroshima just before this story’s current events pick up) he recalls that he was hired by Thomas Kelmot (Patrick Kennedy) to stalk his wife, Ann (Hattie Morhan), in order to determine why her disposition had changed so much after her 2 miscarriages (a situation whose cause would likely have been a lot more obvious from the beginning if a woman were doing the investigating).
Bottom Line Final Comments: Unlike most Sherlock Holmes stories, this one’s mystery is more about what actually happened to Ann Kelmot and why her faded remembrance is such a disturbing situation for our beloved detective, battling his onset of dementia. All is gradually revealed as Holmes finally remembers why her life and death had such an impact on him (with none of the romantic implications that we’re initially led to assume about them based on the only mementos that he has of her, a wrinkled photo and a single glove), but this isn’t a story focused on revelations and resolutions, rather it’s about how we come to understand the hidden complexity of this reclusive genius, how he’s come to castigate himself for years for not being more aware of the spirit of human relationships rather than the rigid details of an encounter, finally how he learns to open himself up to those who need his support even when he must alter his sacred devoted to factual truth in order to help bring about emotional resolutions for those connected to him rather than literal understandings of events and their impact. In total, though, Mr. Holmes tries a little too hard to keep us intrigued with a seeming-grand-mystery about Ann that becomes easily explained as we go along, then has to find a situation of late-plot-drama by having Roger attacked by the wasps (even as there’s an easy solution to the situation regarding Sherlock's bees because the boy was stung earlier by one with no repercussions, as we’re quickly reminded with a flashback shot as Holmes hobbles to prevent Mrs. Munro from burning his bees in unjust retribution).
Mr. Holmes is a fine character study that could easily be about anyone reaching their final years with regrets over former actions, then finding some sense of absolution with an eye towards whatever remains of the future rather than being held captive by the past; however, with Sherlock Holmes as the film's protagonist there’s a built-in-expectation of a murkier story, a need to find clarity and justice to right devious deeds or troubling mysteries, thus his foggy memories of Ann take on a sense of importance that becomes resolved too easily when all of the missing aspects of her situation quickly fall into place. This is a touching, well-acted, intriguing film, but for me not quite as compelling as it would like for me to embrace. But, as for a Musical Metaphor, how about Neil Young’s “Old Man” (from his 1972 Harvest album) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An2a 1_Do_fc, with this performance recorded in early 1971 at the BBC Television Theatre, Shepherd’s Bush, London, which we can contemplate lyrically as we observe Mr. Holmes’ aging man, a legend in his own time now largely reduced to fear of his forgetfulness, fear of his failing body, fear that all of his fame will never be enough to wash away the personal misery of his response to Ann Kelmot (even if he didn’t want her to leave her husband in order to be with him in mutual melancholy, he felt he was too objective and clinical in how he turned away her offers) as he contemplates “Love lost, such a cost, Give me things that don’t get lost, Like a coin that won’t get tossed, Rolling home to you.” Mr. Holmes ends most optimistically, but the titular protagonist knows that he’s “been first and last” as he “Look[s] at how the time goes past,” knowing that soon enough he’ll “be alone at last, Rolling home” to a state beyond bees and books, written by Dr. Watson or otherwise.
Tangerine (Sean Baker)
On a sunny Christmas Eve in LA Sin-Dee, a trans-woman prostitute, is on the hunt, along with her friend/fellow-sex-worker Alexandra, for Dinah who’s been cheating with Sin-Dee’s pimp boyfriend, Chester (we also see the exploits of horny cab driver Razmik); after a lot of travel around the neighborhood, all of the principals come together for a big confrontation.
What Happens: There’s not really a lot of plot in Tangerine, although you could say that it follows the structure (loosely) of ancient quest myths. The quest in this case is the furious search by boiled-over Sin-Dee Rella (Kitana Kiki Rodriquez), helped—or at least trailed—along by her friend and likewise transgender
female sex worker, Alexandra (Mya Taylor), to find the woman (biological and accepting of it in her case; in the context of the world of this film, cisgender seems to be the appropriate term for her, but I'm a bit out of my depth here so please bear with me), whose name starts with D (we eventually find out that it’s Dinah [Mickey O’Hagan]) who’s been cheating with Sin-Dee’s pimp/boyfriend, Chester (James Ransone), while our angry protagonist’s been in jail for the last 28 days—oh, by the way, did I mention that this all takes place on Christmas Eve in sunny LA, where the snowless-environment perfectly matches the mood of no peace on Earth, no good will toward women (or men, in Chester’s case) who poach Sin-Dee’s territory? Sin-Dee storms through the streets, berating everyone she talks to in an attempt to clarify the identity of eventually-identified-Dinah so that she can make clear to this intruder what a mistake she’s made by banging Chester (ironically, this is all played for great comic effect, but if the topic doesn’t antagonize you [not that there’s anything wrong with it], the language may melt your ears a little bit [unless you’re used to hanging around high-school-jocks or any other cluster of teenagers, where “Um,” “Like,” and “You know” are often the only bits of modern English that alternate with the remnants of Anglo-Saxon]). In addition to Sin-Dee’s hunt for the elusive Dinah, Alexandra has her own quest, that of rounding up patrons for her singing performance that night at a local bar; then there’s Armenian cab driver Razmik (Karren Karagulian), with an obsessive fondness for these trans-prostitutes, so much so that when he accidently calls a biological woman into his cab for a quick blowjob (with him as the active partner) he’s horrified to find that this woman merely has a vagina so he throws her out of the cab in disgust, then goes home to dinner with his wife, baby, mother-in-law Ashken (Alla Tumanian), and a few other assorted relatives (I guess, not quite sure who the rest of that crowd was, although they could be friends over for a holiday meal) before storming back out again, for more income as far as the family’s concerned, more sex for his actual intentions.
By the time the night's in full swing Sin-Dee’s finally found Dinah then man- (woman? It gets a bit confusing at times) handles her onto a bus to go confront Chester, although they stop off first to attend Alexandra’s performance, the only recruits who actually show up (even sadder, she has to pay to perform; the bar’s rather nice, though, with a couple of open-air-“walls” onto the street). Later, at Chester’s “office” in a local donut shop we have Sin-Dee confronting him and Dinah, Alexandra finally getting fed up with the whole scene, Razmik wandering in looking for a nightcap (so to speak) as he’s been a regular customer of both Sin-Dee and Alexandra (there’s a great scene of him with the latter woman going at it while his cab goes through a carwash), and then Ashken barging in after being tipped off of Razmik’s whereabouts by another Armenian cabbie, leading to her calling in her daughter, Yeva (Luiza Nersisyan), who comes with the baby to the storm at Donut Time but isn’t upset with her husband because at least he’s bringing home some money (what he doesn’t spend on the hookers), which they desperately need to live on. After a lot more profane yelling, Sin-Dee storms off but she’s followed by Alexandra, who comes to her aid after a carful of rowdy homophobes drive by, splashing a cupful of something on Sin-Dee (urine probably, based on her disgusted reaction and Alexandra’s insistence that they go immediately to a Laundromat to wash her clothes and wig), with our story (although it has more of the feel of spontaneous-documentary-coverage) reaching its end while the washer goes through its cycle as Alexandra offers sympathy and the loan of her own wig to Sin-Dee in solidarity for the stressful night they’ve both endured.
So What? The continous sense of immediacy in the extremely-low-budget Tangerine comes from the relatively long takes shot on location in the less-desirable-streets of LA where we witness the strong, (ironically) unmannered performances of men (as some would understand them or maybe as they might understand themselves at times) performing (or transforming) as women, but the shooting process is further enhanced by filming (well, digital videoing actually, but the term continues even as the medium evolves) the entire narrative with an Apple iPhone 5S (with an anamorphic lens), which produced remarkably sharp images even when blown up to theater-screen-size. This production process—avoiding camera rental, expensive post-production editing processes, negotiated agreements to use public spaces and businesses for shooting (however, the film crew and actors had to halt whenever actual transactions were going on in the various locations), and segregation of the actual dwellers of the environment where Tangerine was shot—contributes to the constant sense of intense spontaneity that drives this narrative forward from quick start to melancholy finish (although the framing forced by the phone format sometimes leads to rather clunky editing of one image to the next, especially with the opening Ping-Pong-shots of Sin-Dee and Alexandra talking as we cut clumsily from one to the other depending on whose dialogue is dominant, along with an occasionally-oversaturated-color-scheme, but, in truth, that all just adds to the vibrant immediacy of the visuals). The actors handle their roles in a marvelous fashion as well, especially the constantly-explosive Rodriquez and the constantly-frustrated Taylor (Karagulian, whose character is frustrated in another manner, is equally effective as the story keeps actively cutting between the women’s quests and his various oddball passengers, solicitations, and clandestine life). This film is truly as fresh as a ripe tangerine, a succulent (so to speak) experience unlike most anything you’re likely to see in competing venues (although I’ll venture to say that its harsh storyline, abusive language, and unconventional lead characters won’t likely lead to it playing extensively anyway, so “competing” hardly comes into play here).
For an old, straight, White guy like me (Sin-Dee and Alexandra are Black, which is a reality in the community being explored here but certainly doesn't seem to be a defining factor in their primary identities) it’s hard to know whether to understand the primary protagonists as gay men in drag or transgender women with the outer appearance of females but still the underlying anatomy of males, yet the more I’m finally being exposed to the complexity of these lives that I rarely encounter in my usual circles, the more I begin to understand a little bit of how other people live that I rarely have much insight about, especially those who’re living in social strata far removed from the glamorous, well-heeled (referring to both money and shoes) lifestyle of someone famous and socially-defended in her self-understanding, such as Caitlin Jenner. Sin-Dee and Alexandra (played by actual transgender actors) may live in the same general geographical area as the former-Olympic-Decathlon-champion/now-reality-show-star, but in their daily circumstances they’re practically on separate planets, a needed media-revealed-distinction to help those of us who’d rarely interact with a woman like Sin-Dee to understand better how her life operates without the glitter that Caitlin now enjoys (although I do realize that her gender transformation was no picnic either, nor is it likely to be without its own type of ongoing difficulties because of the rigid societies that still populate far too much of our planet). If you’d like to explore this topic in more detail, I recommend this article.
Bottom Line Final Comments: Even with its brief 87 min. running time, Tangerine may be a very difficult sell (including later on video, if not available in a theater anywhere near you) to many segments of the American (and international) audience nor is it easy to understand from reading descriptions about it how it can be said to function mostly as a comedy. However, if you focus just on the aspects of infidelity and the tangled webs it weaves without yet realizing that the 2 main women you’ve been watching throughout the film are still biologically (if not self-conceptually) men (just as some of us were able to get through a lot of The Crying Game [Neil Jordan, 1992] many years ago before realizing the real challenge for Fergus [Stephen Rea] wasn’t just an Irish-British-clash between him and Dil [Jaye Davidson]), then I think you’ll find there are some hilarious confrontations here, fueled mainly by the provocative hurricane force that is embodied in Sin-Dee. With that in mind, I encourage you to give Tangerine a try (or a taste, well aware of the risqué connotations that term carries in this context) if you can find it (only 33 theaters nationwide so far, despite being in release for 3 weeks, taking in only $300,000 at this point so it may not be long in residence wherever it’s playing); however, if you need to condition yourself a bit more before attempting to track it down, I’ll offer the encouragement of my last Musical Metaphor, Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side” (from the 1972 Transformer album) at https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=RsVLIiI8Vfo, a video that features some of Andy Warhol’s transvestite superstars, although they’re still a couple of steps removed from the intensity that effectively saturates Tangerine (even though I still have no idea what the title refers to, naïve as I may be about it).
Short Takes
Rather than include any reviews in this section of this posting I’ll just offer some odds and ends that have accumulated during my recent break from Film Reviews from Two Guys in the Dark. I’ll start by noting that Jurassic World (Colin Trevorrow; not-so-enthusiastic-3½-star-review in our June 17, 2015 posting) has now become the #3 All-Time-Worldwide-Top-Grossing-Movie with a current take of about $1.54 billion ($624.1 million of that coming from the U.S.-Canadian domestic-box-office returns, the rest from international sales), trailing only James Cameron’s Avatar (2009; about $2.8 billion) and Titanic (1997; about $2.2 billion—all income estimates above based on latest Box Office Mojo figures rather than the cited Variety article, given that money is still rolling in for Jurassic …), with some of that resulting from an overall-audience-satisfaction level that far exceeds mine and most other critics (71% positive responses from the Rotten Tomatoes reviewers, Metacrtics at 59%), plus the reality that movie ticket prices have now hit an all-time-high with an average of $8.61 (although in my San Francisco Bay-area-market I can usually beat that with either my senior status or by attending an afternoon matinee, but full-adult-evening-prices easily are at or over the $10 level), helped along by the increasing-popularity of viewing in 3-D and/or IMAX formats, so it should come as no surprise that the (first?) Jurassic World sequel (again with Chris Pratt, Dallas Bryce Howard, and another collection of rejuvenated-dinosaurs—reality’s getting a little closer to what we see in these movies as scientists have recently discovered in fossils what may be “thunder lizard” red blood cells and collagen fibers but still no DNA that could lead to Jurassic World-style-“resurrection”-cloning) will come roaring back in June 2018, so obviously my disinterest in simply using more sophisticated CGI technology to retell an already-established-story isn’t having much impact with the actual ticket-buying-public.
Also, getting back to my opening paragraph about new releases that I’ve now got a good excuse to skip because I’ve been out of the flow for so long, I’ll include Pixels which is absolutely excoriated in this scathing review from some guy named Movie Bob (but be forewarned—or delighted, depending on your tastes—about his use of fully-X-rated-language), although his fierce dismissal might just encourage you to see it so I'll leave that to you (if so, let me know what you think about it—or Minions for that matter). Finally, I’ll note that I recently received an email from a guy at YourLocalSecurity.com, which he described as “a resource for people to prepare for emergency situations across the U.S., whether they are zoned for tornado’s [sic], hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, or wildfires” (seriously, this does seem to be a very useful source of help regarding these calamities) with a request to add their site to ours because we have “similar links and information,” so in case you’re ever wondered just how much of a disaster Film Reviews from Two Guys in the Dark is, now we know that we’ve entered the upper echelon. (On a more serious note related to that, I’ve recently found several comments on our various posts that are nothing more than attempts to offer links to everything from free [legal?] downloads of current films to religious tracts, real estate sales, and marijuana sites [another indication of how our “product” must be popping up in various search-engines], so I’ve had to set up a comment filter that allows me to accept or delete them before they go public; sorry for any time-delay this may cause for legitimate responses—or outright rejection for unrelated spam—but Pat and I never intended for this site to become a dumping-ground for irrelevant solicitations with no real connections to film reviews.)
OK, now that I’m feeling back into it again I’ll be seeing you soon with more responses to whatever I encounter at the theaters (although I’m also glad to pass along passing notes on films I see in other formats such as the marvelous-but-heart-wrenching-documentary, Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me [James Keach, 2014], seen recently on CNN, and Spike Lee’s even-better-as-time-goes-on-sobering-take on post-9/11-NYC in 25th Hour [2002] on disc from Netflix). And—one last thing—when I checked our most recent readership statistics I was surprised to find that for the first time the largest group (58%) of Two Guys in the Dark fans is in Russia (must be because Putin admires me so much), followed by the usual #1 of U.S. readers (but only 30% in this most-recent-tally), France (5%), then Australia, Canada, India, Ukraine, Brazil, United Arab Emirates, and Germany at about 1% each. In general, though, the ongoing dearth of comments (except from the few ever-faithful) still leaves me mostly clueless as to what any of you think of our “disastrous” project, but it’s still marvelous to know that at least we’re known worldwide to the tune of about 5,000 hits per month. Our eternal thanks to everyone who’s read our reviews, even once. Cheers, mates!
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Here’s some more information about Terminator: Genisys:
http://www.terminatormovie.com/#home
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGSxss7gWak
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhypnhOa8p4 (6:03 exploration of the various references in this current movie to the previous ones and the TV show)
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/terminator_genisys/?search=terminator
http://www.metacritic.com/movie/terminator-genisys
Here’s some more information about Mr. Holmes:
http://www.mrholmesfilm.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0G1lIBgk4PA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIbh_HZJ3tM (a very charming 31:52 interview with actors Ian McKellen and Laura Linney, done at Google NYC)
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mr_holmes/?search=mr
http://www.metacritic.com/movie/m
Here’s some more information about Tangerine:
http://www.magpictures.com/tangerine/ (this official site offers a Green Band trailer alternative that’s purged of the R-rated dialogue in the one below)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALSwWTb88ZU (this is a Red Band trailer so the dialogue is as R-rated as the film; if you’re ready for that level of language, I’ll also offer you a couple of clips from the film at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqsJq5qK3jE [Sin-Dee and Alexandra discuss Chester’s infidelity], then https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KB0HaimkeOI [Sin-Dee on the hunt for Chester’s new flame])
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHRUVLOlFpE (4:12 conversation with writer-director Sean Baker, actors Karren Karagulian, James Ransone, and Mya Taylor)
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/tangerine_2015/?search=tangerine
http://www.metacritic.com/movie/tangerine
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If you’d rather contact Ken directly rather than leaving a comment here please use my new email at kenburke409@gmail.com. Thanks.
By the way, if you’re ever at The Hotel California knock on my door—but you know what the check out policy is so be prepared to stay for awhile. Ken
P.S. Just to show that I haven’t fully flushed Texas out of my system here’s an alternative destination for you, Home in a Texas Bar, with Gary P. Nunn and Jerry Jeff Walker.
WE DO OUR VERY BEST TO PRESENT THESE TWO GUYS POSTINGS IN A VISUALLY-CONSIDERED GRAPHIC LAYOUT, BUT EXTENSIVE TRIAL-AND-ERROR HAS SHOWN US THAT UNLESS YOU’RE READING OUR REVIEWS ON A MACINTOSH COMPUTER USING MAC OS X 10.10.3 AND SAFARI 8.0.6 YOU’LL LIKELY SEE A SLOPPIER PRESENTATION THAN WHAT WE INTENDED (but Google Chrome 43.0.2357.130 usually comes fairly close to our intentions). OUR APOLOGIES FOR ANY INADVERTENT SLOP THAT WE CAN’T CONTROL.
female sex worker, Alexandra (Mya Taylor), to find the woman (biological and accepting of it in her case; in the context of the world of this film, cisgender seems to be the appropriate term for her, but I'm a bit out of my depth here so please bear with me), whose name starts with D (we eventually find out that it’s Dinah [Mickey O’Hagan]) who’s been cheating with Sin-Dee’s pimp/boyfriend, Chester (James Ransone), while our angry protagonist’s been in jail for the last 28 days—oh, by the way, did I mention that this all takes place on Christmas Eve in sunny LA, where the snowless-environment perfectly matches the mood of no peace on Earth, no good will toward women (or men, in Chester’s case) who poach Sin-Dee’s territory? Sin-Dee storms through the streets, berating everyone she talks to in an attempt to clarify the identity of eventually-identified-Dinah so that she can make clear to this intruder what a mistake she’s made by banging Chester (ironically, this is all played for great comic effect, but if the topic doesn’t antagonize you [not that there’s anything wrong with it], the language may melt your ears a little bit [unless you’re used to hanging around high-school-jocks or any other cluster of teenagers, where “Um,” “Like,” and “You know” are often the only bits of modern English that alternate with the remnants of Anglo-Saxon]). In addition to Sin-Dee’s hunt for the elusive Dinah, Alexandra has her own quest, that of rounding up patrons for her singing performance that night at a local bar; then there’s Armenian cab driver Razmik (Karren Karagulian), with an obsessive fondness for these trans-prostitutes, so much so that when he accidently calls a biological woman into his cab for a quick blowjob (with him as the active partner) he’s horrified to find that this woman merely has a vagina so he throws her out of the cab in disgust, then goes home to dinner with his wife, baby, mother-in-law Ashken (Alla Tumanian), and a few other assorted relatives (I guess, not quite sure who the rest of that crowd was, although they could be friends over for a holiday meal) before storming back out again, for more income as far as the family’s concerned, more sex for his actual intentions.
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| Twister (Jan de Bont, 1996) |
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